Editorial: Congress must learn the value of compromise

Thursday

Jan 20, 2011 at 12:01 AMJan 20, 2011 at 8:16 PM

Congress' three-week-old legislative session has thus far been but an extended exercise in symbolism, from the reading of the Constitution that kicked off the House session - which called to mind nothing so much as a read-aloud assignment in the second grade, conveying a message no deeper than "the Constitution is good" - to this week's quixotic effort to overturn health reform.

Congress' three-week-old legislative session has thus far been but an extended exercise in symbolism, from the reading of the Constitution that kicked off the House session - which called to mind nothing so much as a read-aloud assignment in the second grade, conveying a message no deeper than "the Constitution is good" - to this week's quixotic effort to overturn health reform.

What's next in this parade of surface-level attempts to please constituents?

Could it be the promised investigations - at least six big ones planned before April - into what Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa once called "one of the most corrupt administrations" in the modern era? Issa has since backed off those comments, telling CNN that "people misunderstand the meaning of the word 'corrupt'" and that he didn't mean to "imply wrongdoing of the president on a criminal level." In any case, Americans of every political stripe should be concerned about someone with subpoena powers who seems to have prejudged the guilt of his target. Any potential Javert needs reminding that there is a fine line between oversight and a witch hunt; the latter only ends up smearing the investigator.

We'd like to think that over the next two years, Congress can be about so much more than futile maneuvers and political efforts to make the president look bad. Progress on the challenges that confront the nation - of which there are no shortage - is possible even with a divided Congress, or even when the leader of the executive branch is not of the same party as the legislative.

In 1996, a Republican Congress sent a Democratic president a major welfare reform bill, which he signed. In 1983, a Democratic House and Republican Senate enacted the last major changes made to keep Social Security solvent. A GOP-dominated House and a Senate with a narrow Democratic majority passed No Child Left Behind in 2001. In fact, it was a House committee chairman named John Boehner who was one of the architects of that compromise measure.

Now speaker, Boehner is reputed to be more moderate than a large part of his caucus, more willing to make deals. Will he extol the virtues of compromise to his members, reminding them that they can at least start to nudge policies in their direction, helping to win a broader national political argument and pad their majorities? Or will he give in to members who want to go for the whole enchilada and nothing but?

Opportunities do exist to move forward on some significant policy initiatives. Congress has free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama to consider, generally supported by the Republican caucus. Disciplining Uncle Sam's spending is high on the agenda, both in the short-term for the current fiscal year and beyond that with the recommendations of the deficit reduction commission.

As always, politics is the art of the possible; what you'd like to do is the stuff of campaigns, and what you can do is the stuff of governing. Unless Republicans in the House and Democrats in the Senate figure out some ways to compromise with the other side, with neither getting everything it wants, the latter can't happen, and it's the American people who will be the losers.

That's fundamentally the argument that two Republican heavyweights made last weekend when they addressed a House GOP retreat and strategy session. While potential candidate for president and current Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour did support some efforts to stymie funding for Obama programs, he much more pragmatically reminded lawmakers that "we can't pass laws unless the president agrees." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was more direct, urging Republicans to seek actual solutions, in one arena in particular: "The number one job of House Republicans is to focus on jobs."

What better way to look after their own job security than to prove they're able to get something done on that score?

Peoria, Ill., Journal Star

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